The Week's Top Twenty in Social Media

The social media sphere is an increasingly noisy place, especially for brands. But hiding somewhere in the static are strong signals from companies reaching their customers in innovative ways. The Social Business Index from Dachis Group provides a (free) real-time ranking of more than 30,000 global brands based on their social performance. Every week we're taking a tally of who's getting heard, what they're saying, and why it matters.

The social media sphere continued to spin this week as spring set in. National Amusements topped the charts, bumping Disney down to number two. Whereas the rest of the top 10 stayed stagnant, there was a lot of movement in the teens, with NBC Universal and WWE both winning the biggest mover status. It looks like soft drinks and energy drinks are slipping a little bit. (It's time to get fit, after all.) But the companies that caught our attention all made decent leaps: a dozen slots! With Ford, eBay and Domino's on our radar, it's an all-American week this week. We hope you like pizza, trinkets, and automobiles!

If there's anything patriotic people love better than an overpriced Italian sports car or a swooping handmade British sedan, it's a classic American automobile. Ford moved 12 spots up the Social Business Index this week thanks, in part, to the Mustang's 48th birthday. The Facebook campaign wasn't too complicated. In celebration of the car’s superstar status, Ford Mustang posted a simple vintage photo of a couple enjoying one of the early convertibles, and, even without a call-to-action, the post captured 11,000 likes, 900 comments, and 3,000 shares," explained Kelly Kriegshauser at the Dachis Group. But there's always room for the future, she added. For Ford, it's their brand presence in Mexico. As such, they turned to Ford Mexico posted some photos and videos of upcoming models, getting curious Ford fans on both sides of the border looking at what's next. If the original American carmaker's history is any indication, it'll be Built Ford Tough.

Who's in the market for a vintage chair? A fancy new watch? A poster for your favorite rock band? Anything, really. You can find it on eBay this time of year. It's spring cleaning time, of course, and eBay is capitalizing on folks cleaning out their closets by leveraging the power of images. Like Ford, eBay moved up 12 spots in the Social Business Index this week on the heels of a successful photo campaign on their Facebook page. It varied by location. "Ebay gave their fans an “Awwww!” fix, by showing five photos of cute babies, after which likes, shares and comments were flying on the page," Krieghauser told The Atlantic Wire. She added that it's a sellers market as well as a buyer's market: "Photos of earrings, shoes, and makeup caught the most engagement this week, and we’ll continue to keep an eye on the eBay Facebook pages to see what else they do with photos to spark an interest among their fans." Got any rare old baseball cards? We know we do somewhere…

Of all the nationwide pizza chains, Domino's has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to technology. (Anybody ever try the Pizza Tracker?!?) Domino's is constantly coming out with new innovations to their food and their technology, a strategy that got them within three ranks of the top 100 this week. Since it was Patriot's Day on Monday, their Facebook postings reflected a heck-yah-America attitude that works. These two received 10,000 and nearly 4,000 Likes respectively. (The latter is more classic than patriotic.) But according to Allison Squires at the Dachis Group, Domino's really shines on the customer service front. "Quickness and intention to respond shows fans that they can always go to the Twitter stream and have their complaint heard," she said. "If morale is down on the page, the brand can always give away a free pizza to get pizza-lovers buzzing again."